Do You Want to Live to 100?

For the past decade or two, the potential extension of human life has been widely discussed, including in psychological circles. Numerous surveys have been conducted to determine if people would want to live much longer lives if it were possible. Of special interest has been the possibility of many, perhaps most of us, to live to be 100 years old, which is almost a quarter century beyond the current average lifespan in the United States. According to the New England Centenarian Study, just one American in 5,000 is currently a centenarian (85 percent of them women), making the prospect of any of us making it to the century mark appear to be highly improbable.

One might not know those long odds judging by the attention that hyperlongevity has received in scientific journals and the popular media, however. As in the past, the thinking goes, advances in medicine and health care will vastly extend lifespan, making it likely that a baby born today will celebrate their 100th birthday in 2124. Centenarians are now the fastest-growing age group, we’ve also been told, giving hope that we who are alive today may join the club.

What’s often left out of this discussion is that genetics plays a very important role in how long any of us may live. Future medical breakthroughs and a healthy lifestyle can only do so much, in other words, even if our DNA can be manipulated in some way. Also usually ignored by cheerleaders for “super-aging” is that the average lifespan in the United States is going down rather than up. Estimated life expectancy at birth in this country decreased to 76.4 years in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, down 2.4 years from 78.8 years in 2019 and down 0.6 years from 2020.

A Longing to Delay Death

What is behind this belief that there is an exponential leap in longevity looming on the horizon? The dream of living longer, perhaps forever, is of course a very old one itself. The realization of actual scientific and technological miracles has only accelerated such hopes, making us think that anything is possible. Today, we continue to challenge the fundamental human dilemma—that we are born to die—wishing that we may be delivered from this most inconvenient of truths. The longing to dramatically extend life is really about the longing to delay death, I argue, as many of us are emotionally ill-equipped to cope with the concept of dying.

For the past century or so, in fact, Americans in particular have had an uneasy relationship with death, as modernity made dying appear unnatural and abnormal despite clear evidence to the contrary. As well, no longer existing runs distinctly contrary to our defining cultural values rooted in progress and achievement; death has been cast as a failure of some kind. Recently, buoyed by our enduring faith in science and technology, death has been turned into a problem to solve, an odd thing given that it and taxes have so far proven to be the only certainties in life.

It can be seen how the quest for longevity has run parallel with the aging of society. Since the 1980s, baby boomers have actively sought ways to stall or reverse the physical signs or process of getting older. Although decades of antiaging research have yet to produce anything of consequence to prevent us from getting older save for extreme calorie reduction, there is a conviction among many experts that an increase in longevity equivalent to that made in the 20th century (about 30 years) will be achieved this century. For boomers, who are now in their 60s and 70s, an amazing stride in longevity represents the logical extension of their (failed) effort to “de-age.”

Rather than imagine a society populated by millions of centenarians, I propose that we focus on the here and now. It is the quality of life that matters, after all, not its quantity. Every life is a complete life as, regardless of one’s age, each has a beginning, middle, and end. In place of dreaming to live to be 100, let’s dedicate ourselves to making the most of the time we may have by doing what we can to make the world a better place.